Testing of pressure parts and various diameter tubes or piping using nondestructive testing techniques is an arduous task, particularly when testing seam welds. For example, a boiler system having multiple tubes linearly arranged in a fixed position (e.g., waterwall tubes) and with a fixed, limited amount of space between the tubes may be difficult to inspect with precision. Typically, using ultrasonic techniques (UT), an operator manually scans the desired area of the tube with a hand-held UT probe that delivers signals (sound waves) through the tubing and receives feedback measurements as a result of the scanning. Clearly such a manual process is susceptible to inaccuracies, since a human operator's fine motor skills while traversing the tube, either longitudinally along the length or circumferentially, may not be entirely stable or consistent, which translates to less than optimal readings (e.g., missed cracks or wall degradation, false positives, and other such errors).
What is needed, therefore, is a way to provide ultrasonic testing of tube-to-tube welds or tube to header welds for multiple linearly arranged and fixed tubing having limited space between the tubing.